Shadows Overhead
by Mystical Ninja Unicorns
Summary: Vex a gang member of the Bottle Street Gang and highly wanted through out Dunwall is sold out and thrown in Coldridge prison. But that's not all, her sister is thrown in the prison at Dunwall Tower and the only way to save her is to join Corvo and the Loyalists, who she knows is only using her to meet their own ends. Basically if Corvo had a female partner fan fic.


_After a disappointingly bad review I decided to rewrite the whole entire thing. I did end up seeing my mistakes rather harshly and I am now rewriting it into something better and more detailed. As for those who feel compelled to write a review, I ask that you do so nicely with manners and I wish to remind you I don't have a master's degree in English, I'm a teenager who loves to write down her ideas and show people in hopes that others will like it too. Other than that, here's Shadow's Overhead rewritten with more background information and details, also with a better idea. _

**Ch1. Animal**

Vex woke up to the light blinding her eyes. After groaning and rolling over, her sister giggled as she replaced the shade.

"Wake up…" She whispered, jumping unto the bed next to Vex and shaking her shoulder. "You told me to wake you up a little after sunrise…"

Vex groaned again, not wanting to open her droopy eyes. "I know I did." She whined. "But it would have been nicer if you forgot." Suddenly her nose was seized by the smell of coffee and a lit cigarette.

"Come on…" Tallie said, giggling again as she waved the lit cigarette under her nose like a beacon to consciousness. Vex groaned and swiped the cigarette, she inhaled a big cloud of poisoness gas and reminded herself to quit. Finally she opened her eyes to her room. Well her living room.

They only have a small apartment with a kitchen, a living room, and a small bathroom. Their mattress was laid in the far left corner was the victim of a mini tornado. Vex's hair was no better as she sat up and grabbed the mug of coffee from Tallie's hand.

She sipped it, black coffee; her favorite. "So…" Tallie said giggling "What are you going to do today that was so important to wake up in the morning… when you're a not a morning person?"

"Gang stuff Tallie… you know that." Vex said, stretching and examining the three shelves of food they owned. A can of pees, a jar of pickles, and a thing of odd ham that tasted amazing. Vex sighed realizing if she didn't get paid soon, she would have to steal food again, and that could result in capture and thrown in jail.

"So when are you going to your next adventure? You know when you're a sexy pirate?" Tallie asked. She had very little grip on Vex's work and the fact that she did bad things just so her sister could live.

"You mean when am I going out to work with the Captain and be a pirate…?" Tallie nodded. "Oh," Vex rubbed her eyes. "In a couple of months, there's this boat filled with whale oil that is going to sell it to the surrounding provinces, so we're going to steal the ship and sell the oil for ourselves, return and sell the ship then split the profit. It's going to be a big payday, but it's going to be about a little less than two weeks til I get back, so I'm going to need you to be good for me, okay Tallie?" Vex asked, looked at Tallie expectantly with her eyebrows raised.

Tallie nodded once and smiled. "I know what to do… But," Tallie cocked her head and frowned, the way she always did whenever she was thinking. "Your birthday is in a couple of months too… If I do the math right, it would be a couple of days after you get back."

"Indeed." Vex said. "Turning twenty-three, yay!" Vex waved her hands in mock excitement.

Tallie giggled once more. "Can I get you something this time; the last couple has been quite a bore."

Vex laughed as she put out her half-finished cigarette. "Sure, I'll give you a couple of coins." She then reached in her pocket… three coins. Vex gave them to Tallie and sighed. "I'll bring you more." She promised, quite ashamed that her and her sister couldn't live better.

"No, this is good." Tallie said, examining the three rusty coins. "I got more, hidden away." Tallie winked then grabbed Vex's boots. "You just go and shank people for their money."

"It's not like that!" Vex smiled as she slipped on her boots while Tallie grabbed a brush from the shelf behind her and brushed out Vex's long white hair. "I just sell gang shit and get half the pay, while pick pocketing those who don't want anything."

"So you don't shank anyone on a daily basis?" Tallie asked, braiding Vex's white hair into a French braid.

"No… Sometimes." Vex winced. "It depends on the situation!" Vex sighed and rubbed her temples. "You don't want to know, Tallie, and maybe one day you'll get a job too."

"Yah right!" Tallie tied off Vex's white braid. "No one wants a weak sick little girl like me!" Tallie finished off the braid by tying it off with one of the numerous hair bands that went along her right forearm. All were colorful and Tallie loved to have them on hand when she got to play with Vex's hair. Tallie sighed as she gave the braid a light affectionate tug. "I wish I had long beautiful hair like you."

Vex's braid danced at her waist as she turned her head. "Then why do you cut yours? It can barely touch the top of your shoulders before you cut it like a boy's!" Vex looked at Tallie's brown short hair that was held back with a piece of dirty purple cloth tied around her scalp while the rest of her hair was a centimeter from the nape of her neck.

"Well, I like my hair short but if I had your hair I would play with it all day!" Tallie spun around in a circle and then grabbed Vex's bow, a simple metal and wood one that had a lot of strength but it was rusting and looked old.

Vex slid the bow around her chest and latched the quiver to her leather belt around her waist. She then slid her knife in her boot and her lightweight shortsword on her left side of her belt, opposite of her quiver. "Then why don't you look for a salon to cut hair? I'm sure you'd be cutting the hair of nobles soon, maybe even the Empress and her daughter!"

Tallie giggled, "You think so?" She smiled up at Vex.

"I know so." Vex said quietly and she looked at Tallie with affection and lightly kissed her forehead. "I'll look around for a salon in need of hire… you might like it."

"You're the best!" Tallie wrapped her slim arms around Vex's curvy waist.

Vex chuckled and opened the door, sliding her bag over her left shoulder. "Behave now." She whispered and closed the door, locking it behind her. Tallie had a key but she also had a short attention span, and always forgot to lock the door.

Vex turned around and almost bumped into Nancy, their neighbors up top. Nancy gasped and smiled lovingly at Vex. Nancy was a very chucky lady but it suited her, making her even more loving. She had an old skinny husband who used to work in the mines but now worked the streets sweeping porches for spare change and shining the boots of soldiers who would let him. "Vex!" She crushed Vex's ribs with her meaty arms and shook around in the air. "How's young Tallie? Should I go visit her later today?"

Vex pulled herself off from Nancy and smiled politely. "Oh, I'm sure Tallie would love that."

"Alright, I still got that spare key you gave me so don't bother leaving the door open!" Nancy smiled and rubbed her sweaty hand on her dirty apron that went over her dull worn yellow dress.

"So, what's new with you Nancy?" Vex asked, she didn't hate or care for Nancy, but Tallie loved Nancy, she was like an aunt she never had, and so Vex was polite and generous with her, as well as patient.

"Oh, my hubby has come down with a bit of the flu or something. He's got a fever and a cough, not mention he's losing the little weight he's got and not looking good. I sent for the doctor but all he said was that others have got this too and to take this medicine for his cough and fever. Apparently he caught from this family that he cleaned the outside of their house for, down in the slummy part of the area. I'm having him rest while I do a little more of my daycare, but not to worry, I'll come down an hour or so before you come home so Tallie won't be lonely." Nancy smiled the way she did with her eyes closed and her mouth a wide curved line.

"That's great just make sure you wash up before seeing to Tallie, you know how she is." Vex smiled back.

"Oh, yes, poor girl so vulnerable to sickness, I'll wash well just before I see to her." Nancy said smiling again then walking up the stairs to her apartment.

Vex sighed as she made her way down the three flights of stairs. She hoped that whatever sickness Nancy's husband had was nothing and passed quickly because the longer it was around the higher a chance Tallie would get sick.

XXX

"You sure it will protect my family?" An older gentleman who looked a bit well off asked, leaning in with his spectacle in her face.

Vex put on that smile that always felt painful and fake. "Why yes it does, sir. It will ward of criminals and sickness, proven by this man's statement." She held up a fake document and the bone charm. She had no goddamn idea what it did but Red, the man she worked for who managed the Bottle Street Gang stall vendors told her to try and sell it for a large price.

"Then why did he sell it?" The gentleman asked, getting even closer, so close she could smell his perfume like flames under her nose. Oh how tempting it was to light a cigarette and watch him burst into a ball of fire.

"Oh…" Vex put on her best sad face. "He passed and none of his kin wanted it… so his wife sold it to me…" She looked away and pretended to hold back a sob. "It was quite sad really, the wife was still crying and I held her so tight, but nothing seemed to calm her." Vex let a false tear slide down her face.

"Oh my!" The gentleman stepped back and put a hand over his mouth. "Oh… why, I'll buy it!" He pulled out a hefty bag of coins, that made Vex's mouth squirt with saliva like it was a fresh baked loaf of bread. She handed him the bone charm and the statement.

"Enjoy your day!" Vex smiled and waved as she threw the coin purse in a lockbox under her stall and locked it, putting the key back in between her hefty two large breasts. She looked around her stall and then at the position of the sun. It was a bit of a cold cloudless day, and how she wanted to be home. She had no jacket so she shivered in her back tank top and tight black pants. Her bow, quiver, and short sword were hidden underneath the stall, for every once and a while a rival gang would try to take this piece of territory for their own false shops, or shops that sold things that were expensive but fake.

She watched as Treavor, her fellow false salesman from across the street, walked over holding two oranges. "Hey, Vex." He smiled, his stupid crush obliviously in his eyes as he handed her an orange.

"Hey Treavor." Vex said, grabbing the orange and examining it. "These are nice, where'd you get 'em?"

"Oh, I bought them from some pirates who stole this Merchant ship coming from the Pandyssian Continent. The ship was full of this fruit so they sold the oranges for cheap. I bought a couple to sell for my own stall." He began to peel his.

"Without Red knowing?" Vex raised her eyebrows. "You know he's gonna demand extra pay if he finds out and then kidnap and torture you if you do it again."

"Come on, Vex, take a risk!" He punched her shoulder affectionately.

"I would love to, but I'm not taking care of myself anymore. I got Tallie, remember?" Vex looked down at the orange. "Speaking of Tallie, I better share this with her, she loves fruit."

Treavor shrugged. "I don't care as long as I get rid of them all by nine, I'll be fine." Then he stopped from his peeling and looked up at Vex. "Hey, how did you find Tallie?" He asked.

"I was scavenging in the trash and found her curled up in a ball and crying. She lost her parents to gang violence like I did, so I took care of her, and thus we became sisters." Vex said plainly. Her parents were once well funded bosses of three gangs and so when two of the three got in a fight they'd make them fight a bloody battle and whoever one won got some pretty heavy goods to sell and get rich while the other starved for a month. They made a lot of money but when one of the gangs found out all three of 'em were being managed by the same couple, all three had a couple of skilled gang members go to her parents apartment and kill them. And they did, right in front of Vex when she was about seven. Then they combined the three gangs and became one big one. Of corse a couple of years after this, the gang had collapsed. As for Vex, she was left in the streets to die and she almost did of starvation. Then she found Tallie and had a purpose so she taught herself how to steal and fight and joined the Bottle Street Gang. They at first made her a servant girl who was beaten and took care of the gang's things. She wiped their ass pretty much but after a while she got the job as a stall vender. And thus was why she was there.

"Oh yah…" Treavor nodded. "I hope she's doing okay." He patted Vex on the back, ate an orange slice and walked back to his stall where a woman was examining his goods.

Vex sighed. "Such compassion." She lightly smiled and then went back to her job of selling shit to rich people.

XXX

Red examined Vex's stall and money she made first. "This is shit." Was all he said, fingering the money in his one big palm. "I'm not even sure… that this is worth giving you a cut." He waged a finger in Vex's face.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" She took a hostile step forward. "I've been working my ass off this month and made more than I did last month this week!"

"Watch that attitude, girl!" Red backhanded her, her head making a jagged motion to the right. Red was called Red due to his red beard and balding hair. He was a fat man in his late forties and enjoyed making people suffer. "Another step outta line and I'll take a visit to that sister of yours. Isn't she sixteen now? Old enough for me to show her her true purpose in life." He got close to Vex where she could smell the ale and rot on his breathe and skin.

"I swear if you touch her…!" Vex took another step forward and two sinister gag men held her back. She still dug into the ground with the heel of her boots.

Red laughed and wrapped his chubby hand around her throat. "Or what, girl…? You gonna kill me? That wouldn't make Slasher very happy." He pressed hard on her throat for a minute, making her breathe catch and burn in her lungs but Vex made no move. When he moved his hand Vex did that one thing that came to mind.

She spat.

Right in his face.

Red looked at her with surprise and wiped it from his face. Then he backhanded her again, harder that time. Right when he was about to say something, he looked down in her bag that was around her shoulder and reached inside, pulling from it the orange Treavor gave to her. "Selling goods that aren't of the gangs are you girl? Or are you just spending gang money… Is this why there is so little?" Red asked, crushing the orange in Vex's face. Red knew Vex had no money left and needed that week's pay. He knew everything about her.

Vex froze, she couldn't give away Treavor but she couldn't say she bought it. So she did the one thing she could, she fought. She forced her weight against the two men that held her and sneered and growled like a rabid dog. Red waved his fingers in her face again, laughing as she snapped at them. The third of Red's men punch her in the stomach making her breathe stop. She gasped for air as Red grabbed her chin.

"No pay for this week, and you can kiss your sister goodbye, because you're not getting her back until after your attitude improves. But don't you worry, I'll find a way to keep her occupied, and I'll treat as one of my own ladies." He chuckled and turned his back on Vex. She knew what he meant, Tallie would be raped, tortured, and eventually killed.

"No!" Vex screamed and somehow broke free. Adrenaline flowed through her veins as she grabbed the knife from her boot and started viciously stabbing Red. She got four stabs in before the three men began beating her. She accidently dropped the knife as one man damaged her right wrist. She was able to block and dodge most of the hits. She knew how street dogs fought, and she fought better. She jumped and flipped in the air to escape the circle that was beating her. They then rushed her, not bothering to check out Red who was face down in a puddle of blood.

The first man threw a right hook at her and she easily dodged it, punched him in the gut and bashed his head off her knee. As he went don't, she stomped on his neck, snapping it and instantly killing him. The second on was able to get on her side as she was finishing the first guy off and he somehow got a lead pipe. It smashed into her right shoulder and pain came in shockwaves across her body. As he went to swing again, Vex dodged it, jumped, put her foot on the wall to her left and pushed off the wall with that one foot, using the momentum she plowed her left fist into the man face. He stumbled a bit and grabbed his face, shouting in pain. She kicked his knee with her right leg, fracturing it with quite a lot of force. Then somehow the third man got her dagger and stabbed at her. She was able to move fast enough to not get stabbed in somewhere lethal but it did cut open her right side of muscle. She used her left hand to grab the hilt, close to the blade and elbowed him with her right, no matter how much her shoulder shouted out in pain. He loosened his grip and Vex swung her right leg, making the man trip and fall on his back. Then the dagger was hers. Holding it backwards, she slashed his throat in the middle of him falling and he landed gurgling and bleeding out. The last man left had limped away while she battled and she had now lost him.

Vex didn't care… The streets had made her an animal. A killing, savage animal.


End file.
